Selected articles concerning Israel, published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L

Issue 8 5 6 Volume 20 , Number 3 5 Parshias Nitzavim - Vayeilech September 12 , 20 20

Why Balkan Embassies Should Matter to Israel By Lahav Harkov jpost.com September 7, 2020 Kosovars and Palestinians in fact have little in What changed on Friday that made Israel give up on common. this principled position? Israel’s recognition of Kosovo on Friday came as Call it diplomatic realism. somewhat of a surprise, after over a decade of ignoring The past few weeks have shown that Prime Minister overtures from Pristina. Benjamin Netanyahu believes in the adage that a bird in When Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia the han d is better than two in the bush. in 2008, Jerusalem declined to follow the lead of many of First he gave up – temporarily or not, as remains to be its allies, including the US, in recognizing it. Israel was seen – on extending Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea among other countries involved in territorial disputes, such and Samaria, something that was unclear the Trump as Spain, Cyprus and Georgia, in declining to recog nize the administration would approve, though, paradoxically, part fledgling Balkan state. of their own peace plan. Kosovo offered to open an embassy in Jerusalem in Instead, Netanyahu went for something concrete that exchange for recognition in 2018, but Israel’s official he could gain for Israel immediately, peace with the United position was that it did not want to risk its strong Arab Emirates. relationship with Serbia – though plenty of countries that Now, Netanyahu once again is giving up on a recog nize Kosovo still have good ties with Belgrade. theoretical benefit – not sending the wrong message – for The bigger reason why Israel was wary of ties with so mething Israel wants now, two more embassies in Kosovo was because of a concern over setting a precedent Jerusalem, including the first from a Muslim - majority for the Palestinians. country. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, and for Admittedly, the “bird in the hand” view of things is Israel to support them doin g so could be seen as a nod to one the White House has been pushing. The Trump other countries to recognize a Palestinian state. administration preferred to avoid the intern ational Officially, the Palestinian Authority does not recognize backlash of supporting annexation so close to the Kosovo, with its Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour presidential election, and went with moves that can present arguing the Palestinians are under a “typical foreign Trump as a peacemaker. occupation which cannot be compared to the issue of But, as we saw with the Iran deal, Netanyahu knows Kosovo.” how to stand up for Israel’s interests when he feels they But in the immediate aftermath o f Kosovo declaring are un der threat, even when it means taking on American its independence, PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser policies. Which means that in this case, his analysis was Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians should that the benefit outweighs the costs. unilaterally declare independence, as well. When it comes to Kosovo setting a precedent for the “Kosovo is not better than us,” he said. “We deserve Palestinians, the damage is already done; “Palestine” is independence even before Kosovo.” a lready a member of myriad international organizations. In p ractice, the PLO declared a state decades ago, and Plus, there is a key difference between other countries the PA followed Kosovo’s model to unilaterally join recognizing a Palestinian state at this juncture, and Israel numerous international organizations. recognizing Kosovo now. The leaders of Kosovo and Much has been made about US President Donald Serbia were in the same room negot iating with each other, Trump inserting Israel into a Kosovo - Serbia agreement something you could not have said about Netanyahu and that really had nothing to do with Israel. It’s clear that the Abbas since 2009. Kosovo and Serbia signed agreements signing at the Oval Office of a relatively unmonumental to cooperate. It’s not a final status agreement, but it’s a economic agreement between the two countries is part of step in that direction. Trump’s election campaign efforts to show he is a Israel can now point out that this agree ment included dealmaker. And with such a positive response to their recognition of Kosovo, which means it’s not a normalization from Israel and the United Arab Emirates, unilateral move at all. Trump signaled to his Evangelical base once again that he And in exchange, Israel gets two more embassies in is a friend of Israel. Jerusalem. Yes, Israel wants to make its greatest ally happy. But For anyone who shrugs off this move, they can only that still doesn’t answer the question of what this look at the “concern and regret” of the foreign polic y agreement m eans for Israel and the Palestinians. mandarins in Brussels to see that it is enough of a significance to turn the tide in Israel in Kosovo’s favor. Focus o n Israel September 12, 2020 Page 2

Turkey’s Increasing Belligerence, and What It Means for Israel By Yaakov Amidror n ationalinterest.org September 4, 2020 Ankara’s aggression towards its neighbors could other powers in the region, especially the EU, and he bring it into conflict with the Jewish state. wants to expand his country’s influence at the expense of Heightening tensions over energy reserves in the others in the Mediterranean — which, without U.S. backing, Eastern Mediterranean, which recently led to a collision are left largely defenseless. between Greek and Turkish warships, have cast renewed The massive intervention of the Turkish army in Libya attention on Turkey’s aggressive regional policy. poses an immediate threat to Egypt, where the Muslim The country hosts senior Hamas operatives and allows Brotherhood, of which Erdogan has become the informal them to plot terrorist attacks against Israel from Istanbul. leader, is the regime’s biggest enemy. There is also real It sent troops to Qatar after Doha was accused of disdain for the Turks in Egypt, which was once under suppor ting terrorism by Arab countries and blockaded. It Ottoman rule, and tensions between the parties were acute attacked Kurds in Syria who helped the United States fight even before the latest developments. Egypt has thus far ISIS. And it threatened to cut ties with the United Arab refrained from sending troops to counter Turkish Emirates (UAE) over the recently announced peace deal influence in Libya, in part due to its current dispute w ith with Israel — even though Turkey has an embassy in Tel Ethiopia over the Nile River. Egyptian president Abdel Aviv. Fattah el - Sisi must decide what endangers him more and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has extended act accordingly. this belligerent approach to the Mediterranean, sending Aside from a recent statement in support of Greece, soldiers to war - torn Libya and tipping the scales in favor Israel has so far not been involved in either conflict. Libya of the Muslim Brotherhood - influenced Government of is far from Israel, and Turkey does not threaten to infringe National Accor d (GNA), which is fighting the Egypt and on Israel’s EEZ in the Mediterranean. Turkey’s claims UAE - backed Libyan National Army. He reached a overlap those of Greece and Cyprus. The friction between maritime agreement with the GNA to delimit their Israel and Turkey these days concerns Ankara’s support exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which utterly ignored for Hamas, as well as its efforts to gai n influence among the rights of Cyprus and Greece — the latter of which is Palestinians by investing in eastern Jerusalem. When Turkey’s NA TO ally. Erdoğan turned the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, Both countries are threatened by Turkey’s attempts to there was talk that the Al - Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was turn swaths of the Mediterranean into the Turkish Sea. next in line to be liberated — but Turkey has been wary of Ankara is using this dubious deal to legitimize energy using force in the I sraeli context since the 2010 Mavi explorations in areas that, by any measure of international Marmara fiasco. maritime law, are Greek and Cypriot economic waters, and However, Israel has clear plans to connect to Europe is threatening to use its navy against anyone who tries to via a gas pipeline and power cable that are supposed to intervene — even though this would be a gross violation of pass through Cyprus. Will Turkey try to interfere with international law. these projects, on the basis that they cu t into the EEZ that This situation is made possible by the weakness of the Ankara established with the support of the GNA? That European Union, which is unable to act unanimously even would be a Turkish invitation to a military confrontation when member states are confronted by a hostile neighbor with Israel, which will not hesitate to defend its vital and the United States fails to exert its influence. Erdogan interests in the Mediterranean. has learned that the use of force pays off unless the other Regardless, it seems that the easter n Mediterranean side is willing to respond with greater force — like Israe l, may degenerate into an armed conflict with or without for example. Jerusalem’s involvement — an unfortunate reality made What motivates Turkey? While the country is possible by European incompetence, American recovering relatively well from the coronavirus pandemic, indifference, and unrelenting Turkish aggression. it continues suffering from an ongoing economic crisis. IDF MG (ret.) Amidror is a Distinguished Fellow at the Jewish Erdogan appears to feel that his aggressive policies, which Institute for National Security of America’s Gemunder Center for are reminiscent of Ott oman behavior, have broad Defense and Strategy. domestic support. He seems to sense the weakness of

Why America Should Seek to Come to Terms with Turkey By Michael Doran hoover.org September 1, 2020 ATurkey problem, not an Erdogan problem. the final cut, but eight months later, on August 15, 2020, it Even a kerfuffle can reveal a strategic blunder. In surfaced on the internet and sp arked outrage in Turkey. D ecember 2019, the New York Times editorial board Biden was especially critical of Turkey’s policies towards taped an interview with former Vice President Joe Biden. the Kurds and Russia, for which, he insisted, Turkish A segment dealing with US - Turkish relations did not make President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan must “pay a price.” The Page 3 September 12, 2020 Focus on Israel

United States, he continued, should cultivate “elements of over the Iran nuclear deal ended in July 2015. the Turkish leadership” in order to “embolden them…to “Implementation Day,” on which the agreement came into take on and defeat Erdoğan.” Biden’s words evoked full effect, was scheduled for January 16, 2016. Obama images of an American - sponsored coup d’etat, though he regarded this deal as a dramatic new ope ning to Moscow hastened to clarify that he was calling for the Turks to and Tehran, an initiative that he hoped would grow into a remove their president through an “electoral process.” broad strategic accommodation, including cooperation on İbrahim Kalın, Erdoğan’s spokesman, responded to regional security matters. He intended Syria to be the Biden directly. “The days of ordering Turkey around are proving ground of his new style of diplomacy. Turkey’s over,” he wrote on social media. “But if you still think you support for the a nti - Assad rebels, however, was pulling the can try, be our guest. You will pay the price.” Prominent United States in the direction of enmity with the Russian - opposition figures ec hoed Kalın’s sentiments. These Iranian alliance. In Syria, Biden had said in 2014 to a group included, most notably, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of of Harvard students, “our biggest problem [is] our allies.” Istanbul, whom Biden had singled out as the kind of rival He explicitly identified Turkey a s a problematic actor. to Erdoğan that America should “embolden.” The era of Obama zealously avoided any action that would foreign meddling in Turkey’s democracy had ended, impede the march of the Russians and the Iranians on İmamoğlu said. “We condemn it.” Aleppo. Thus, when a Turkish pilot downed a Russian Lining up Erdoğan’s greatest rivals in support of him fighter bomber on November 25, Obama did not support is no mean feat. Turkey is as polarized as America, and Turkey as a NATO ally struggl ing to contain Russia. Erdoğan’s approval rating is low, hovering just above Instead, he adopted the pose of a neutral mediator, seeking thirty percent. Still, Biden’s achievement, though to help third parties sort out their differences. This impressive, is not unprecedented. Time and again over the impartiality contrasted sharply with the unwavering last five years, American leaders have demonstrated a support that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was giving to talent for unifying the Turks in opposition to the United his Syria n ally. States while remaining blissfully unaware of the impact of At the same time, Washington began to pressure their words. What accounts for this Magoo - lik e Ankara to seal Turkey’s border with Syria, a step that obliviousness? would cut the supply lines to the rebels in Aleppo. The The answer: a pervasive misdiagnosis of the problem. horrific terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic State in For years now, the national security community in Paris on November 13 offere d Obama an opportunity to Washington has told itself a story that, by exaggerating the twist Erdoğan’s arm. The attacks, which killed some 130 personal responsibility of Erdoğan for the crisis in US - people, generated outrage throughout Europe. In an Turkish relations, blinds it to the truly important factors. interview for the Wall Street Journal two weeks after the The story is laden with moralizing buzzwords: Erdoğan is Paris attack, a senior American official described the the new “caliph,” and his “neo - Ottoman” and “Islamist” message th at Obama’s team was sending to the Turkish ambitions, to say nothing of his “authoritarian” and government. “The game has changed. Enough is enough,” “kleptocratic” character, have set Turkey on a c ollision the official said. “The border needs to be sealed. This is course with the United States. Regardless of what one an international threat, and it’s all coming out of Syria and thinks of Erdoğan, his policies that have most enraged it’s coming through Turkish territory .” The official publicly Washington — such as launching a military offensive last warned Ankara of “significant blowback” from European fall to drive American forces away from the Turkish powers if Turkey failed to close its border entirely. border or buying the S - 400 anti - aircraft system from This public shaming of Turkey helped fix in the Russia — have enjoyed very broad domestic support, European and American mind the image of Erdoğan as a precisely because the Turkish public reviles the policies of stealthy patron of the Islamic State. To be sure, Erdoğan the United States. did not regard the defeat of the Islamic State as a top In short, America does not have an Erdoğan problem; priority, but that was a mistake that many other leaders had it has a Turkey problem. And that is a problem largel y of also made — including Obama himself, who once famously its own making. dismissed the terrorist organization as “the JV te am.” The prolonged crisis in US - Turkish relations Nevertheless, for Erdoğan and the entire Turkish national - intensified significantly in the fall of 2015, against the security community in Ankara, Turkey had a different backdrop of the Russian - Iranian military offensive in Syria. overriding priority in the Syrian civil war: namely, to The primary aim of the campaign was to retake Aleppo, prevent the rise of Rojava, an autonomous Kurdish statelet located just for ty miles south of the Turkish border. run by the Kurdistan Wor ker’s Party (PKK). Standing between the Russian - Iranian alliance and its Abdullah Öcalan founded the PKK in 1978. Six years strategic target was Erdoğan, the main foreign backer of later, he launched a terrorist insurgency with the goal of the anti - Assad rebels. Which side was the United States turning Eastern Turkey into an independent Kurdish state. on? In the 1980s, Öcalan partnered with the Soviet Union and Without admitting it publicly, President Obama had Syria, which offered him sanctuary and a base from which long been tilting toward Russia and Iran. Negotiations to harass Turkey. In the late 1990s, the Turks captured and Focus o n Israel September 12, 2020 Page 4 imprisoned Öcalan, who, thanks to the cultish reverence PKK created a Syrian militia, the aforementioned “Peoples that his followers accord him, continues to function even Protection Units,” or YPG, in order to carry it out on the from his prison cell as the PKK ’s ideological guide. The ground. In sum, the PKK entered the Syrian civil war in character of Öcalan’s movement has shifted over the years, alignment with Damascus — and by extension, with Tehran but in one form or another his war has continued down to and Moscow. In late 2015 and early 2016, Russia and Iran this day. In total, approximately 40,000 people have died in worked with the YPG, operating out of Afrin, northwest the conflict. of Aleppo, to cut the rebels’ lifeline to Turkey. Aleppo was The disintegration of the Syrian state offered the PKK now besieged on all sides. a new opportunity. Throughout 2013 and 2014, the PKK’s Fo r Ankara, this was a double blow. Not only did it Syrian arm, “the Peoples Protection Units,” or YPG, presage the ultimate fall of Aleppo, but it raised the established control of the Kurdish cantons all along the prospect that the Kurdish cantons in Eastern Syria might Turkish border, proclaiming an autonomous political unit link up, in a geographically contiguous fashion, with the with its capital in Qamishli. Ankara, for its part, regarded cantons in the West. That prospect grew all the more real this development as profoundly threatening to the because, while the Russians and Iranians were working territorial integrity of Turkey — and with good reason. The with the YPG in the West, the Americans were expanding PKK openly presents Rojava as the southern part of a its power and geographic reach in the East. much larger polity that will encompass all of Eastern Obama’s embrace of the Syrian arm of the PKK had Turkey. As Kurdish autonomous regions sprang up in all the makings of a major poli tical scandal, not least Syria, a number of Kurdish towns in Turkey also because the United States government designates the PKK proclaimed their autonomy. as a terrorist organization. To cover its tracks, Washington Historically, the United States has respected the rebranded the YPG, calling it now the Syrian Democratic Turkish assessment of the threat. But as Obama negotiated Forces (SDF). To be sure, the SDF also included Arab his way through the l abyrinth of the Syrian civil war, he elem ents, but its hardcore fighting units came directly from broke with precedent and allied the United States with the the YPG, as did its leadership. The commander of the PKK, by selecting the YPG has as its main partner for SDF goes by the alias of General Mazloum Abdi. His real combating the Islamic State. American airstrikes in support name is Ferhat Abdi Şahin: a lifelong member of the PKK of YPG operations began in Fall 2014; by early 2015, and a close personal associate of Abdullah Öcalan. In the American special forces were embedded with YPG units. Kurdish areas under his control, he uses the SDF to This choice enraged virtually all Turks and sowed the seeds impose a PKK monopoly over Kurdish political life. of a future Turkish - PKK conflict. By giving the PKK a fake identity, Obama successfully To understand how and why Obama did this, a brief fostered the impression in the United States that the examination of relations between the PKK and the As sad American - led campaig n against the Islamic State was regime is warranted. By the end of 2011, the civil war in completely independent of the Russian - Iranian campaign Syria had generated conditions favoring a renewal and to shore up Assad. In truth, however, a key attraction of updating of the historical partnership between the PKK the YPG was its status as a Russian - Iranian proxy. and Damascus. As the power of Damascus swiftly Obama’s partnership with it assured Moscow and Tehran deteriorated, Bashar al - Assad sought to marshal all that t he United States was solely interested in destroying available forces to preserve his positions of strength in the Islamic State and harbored no intention to support what his supporters were now calling “vital Syria,” the those, like Turkey, who sought to block the Russian - spine of Sunni Arab cities in the western part of the Iranian march on Aleppo. Even more, Obama was country: Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Damascus, and Deraa. effectively shutting the Turks out of the Syrian g ame, thus Saving vital Syria req uired abandoning all other giving Russia and Iran a free hand. areas — a strategy that risked losing the north and east of Seen from Ankara, therefore, Obama’s embrace of the the country to the anti - Assad rebels and to Turkey. But the YPG was ominous. Who would ever have predicted that PKK’s Rojava project offered an alternative. What if Assad Washington would assist, in parallel with Tehran and were instead to facilitate PKK dominance over them? In Moscow, the PKK’s Rojava project? The Turks principle, he was no lover of Kurdish autonomy schemes, complaine d often and loudly to the Americans, who but he was weak and desperate, and the PKK had several fobbed them off with the meaningless assurance that attractive characteristics: it was anti - Turkish; it did not seek America’s relationship with the YPG was “temporary, the total destruction of his regime; and it would prevent tactical, and transactional.” territory under its control from serving as a safe haven for But the permanent consequences were obvious to the anti - regime rebels. Turks. Ankara was particularly concerned lest the United Sometime at the end of 2011, Assad reached an States assist the YPG in establishing a presence west of the agreement with the PKK over a loose alliance. According Euphrates, where it could establish a land bridge between to some sources, Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Kurdish cantons of Eastern and Western Syria, which the Qods Force of Iran’s Revolutionar y Guards, played a are otherwise separated by long distances and signific ant role in brokering the deal. However it came about, the Arab areas of settlement. The United States first promised Page 5 September 12, 2020 Focus on Israel not to deploy the YPG west of the Euphrates, then broke Pennsylvania, where Fethullah Gülen, the guru - like leader the promise in the spring of 2016, by facilitating the YPG of a religious movement, has been residing since 1999. A conquest of Manbij. To assuage Turkish anger, Vice majority of Turks hold Gülen responsible for the July 2016 President Joe Biden flew t o Ankara and delivered a public coup attempt that killed 251 people. Before taking up his guarantee that YPG forces would not remain in Manbij. current position as the State Department’s point man on “We have made it clear to Kurdish forces that they must Syria, Am bassador James Jeffrey stated that it is move back across the river,” Biden said. “They cannot and “embarrassing” that Mr. Gülen “is sitting here in the will not get American support if they do not keep that United States.” Is it an accident, many Turks ask, that the c ommitment. Period.” United States both supports the PKK and refuses to Biden made that promise in August 2016. A year and a extradite a coup plotter whose cultish followers w ere half later, the New York Times reported that the local embedded in the Turkish military? Is the United States governing body in Manbij, which was established with the secretly seeking to crack Turkey apart? indispensable aid of American military power, “is modeled Biden’s remarks validate such queries. They sow deep on principle s of the Kurdish separatist leader, Abdullah distrust of American motives and set the United States at Öcalan,” whose photograph is prominently displayed in odds with the sentiments of most if not all of Turkey’s the office of the council’s spokesman. Under national security experts, to say nothing of public opinion, Washington’s “temporary” protective umbrella, the PKK thereby imperilling the search for a strategic has increased its military might and expanded its accommodation with Ankara. But arriving at such an geograp hical reach beyond its wildest imagination. accommodation should be seen instead as a top priority of And it has also gained in international legitimacy. For American foreign policy — as th e key to managing the the first time ever, the PKK now enjoys, through its YPG central contradiction in American policy toward the and SDF personas, support both in the American military Middle East. On the one hand, talk of withdrawing from and in Congress. As a result, each of the s everal Turkish the Middle East is rife on both sides of the political aisle, military interventions in Syria have been met with a chorus and the American public has no tolerance for significant of condemnation on Capitol Hill based on the absurd military commitments. On the other hand, if the United notion that the bogeyman Erdoğan is pursuing an States leaves the region, Russia, China and Iran will fill the “Islamist” and “neo - Ottoman” agenda characterized by ensuing vacuum. America is thus betwixt and between. hatred of “the Kurds.” In f act, these Turkish military Obama’s answer to this dilemma was to attempt to co - operations have been limited in scope, designed purely to opt Russia and Iran — on the theory that Tehran and prevent the PKK from establishing a contiguous statelet, Moscow shared with the United States a large number of and have enjoyed the support of a broad spectrum of interests, first and foremost being the desire to contain Turkish public opinion, including secularists. radical Islamic movements like al - Qaeda and the Islamic Biden’s Decemb er 2019 remarks to the New York State. That effort, however, was misguided, because both Times editorial board signalled that the bogeyman analysis Russia and Iran ar e opposed to the American security of Turkish foreign policy has now found its way into the system. domestic American debate during this season’s contest for If America is to build an order that will safeguard its the presidency. The exaggerated focus on Erdoğan is interests on the ground, it must work with countries that politically useful to Democrats because it places Erdoğan are stable, self - confident, and capable of projecting power. alongside Hungary’s Victor Orban, Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro, Turkey is at the top of the very short list of states that and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu as a member in a fictive meet those criteria. Working with it productively requires coalition of dangerous authoritarian leaders supposedly led respecting its own understanding of its greatest security by President Donald Trump. threat, the PKK. America’s failure to do so has done This development is regrettable. When Biden talked of untold damage to the US - Turkey partnership, with adverse encouraging “elements” to unseat Erdoğan, Turks conseq uence that extend far beyond Syria. immediately recalled that the last such attempt was led Mr. Doran is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in from a command center in the Pocono mountains of Washington, D.C .

Israel’s national imperative: ‘Keep your powder dry’ By Martin Sherman jns.org September 6, 2020 While the normalization with the UAE could propitious moment.'” — William Safire, “Keeping Your definitely entail significant benefits for Israel, it is still Powder Dry,” The New York Times, Feb. 23, 1997 . somewhat premature to celebrate the onset of lasting “..it’s impossible to understand the reality we face amity — rather than enmity — in the region. today, without knowing the history of Hebron.” — Tzipi “…The purpose of keeping powder dry is to be able Schissel, curator of the Hebron History museum, on the to blaze away at the proper time. Thus, the phrase ‘keep brutal 1929 Hebron Massacre of Jews by their long time your powder dry”… carries an implicit, most ominous Arab neighbors. threat: ‘…be prepared to blow the enemy’s head off at the The emerging normaliza tion agreement with the Focus o n Israel September 12, 2020 Page 6

United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ignited hopes among bring the regional states closer.” many that it will be a harbinger of further amiable Testifying to the wide - spread prevalence of the idea is relationships between Israel and additional “moderate” the fact that a quick Google search f or “Peace” + “people - Sunni states across the region. to people - contacts” will yield more than 50 million hits, A challenge to past perceptions? referring to cases of unrest across the globe and how they While th e normalization initiative certainly could entail may be mitigated by inter - personal contacts. significant benefits for the Jewish state, including a “People - to - people” peace: The deceptive allure “knock - on” effect, inducing other Mideast countries to Of course, the allure of t he “people - to - people” peace follow suit, I recently cautioned that it is still somewhat paradigm is understandable for peace - seeking publics. premature to celebrate the onset of lasting amity — rather Indeed, beyond its obvious emotional appeal, it has a than enmity — in the region. certain internal logic to it. After all, if members of rivalrous Numerous pundits (or is that “pundits”?) have set out collectives — such Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs — get their preferred preconditions for a lasting peace, only to to know each other, form amicable interpersonal ties, even have their prescriptions upended by recalcitrant realities. bonds of friendship, this should work to break down In some ways, the Israel - UAE initia tive has indeed barriers of animosity, undermine mutual suspicion and challenged widely accepted “wisdom” regarding peace, and dispel negative stereotypes. the absence thereof, in the Middle East. Thus, a little over This all sounds very reasonable — and indeed, Mossad three years ago, on the website of Commanders for Israel’s head Pardo embraced it in his previously cited address , Security, former head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, asserting: “At the end of the day, a peace agreement declared: “Po pular hostility in Muslim countries resulting derives its strength from an understanding between from the Israeli - Palestinian conflict has made peoples, not an accord between governments.” normalization with Jordan and Egypt impossible, and has This parallels the sentiments expressed in a 2019 rendered anything other than secret agreements with other Hoover Ins titute paper, Israel - Palestine Peace Is Possible, Arab countries impossible. The Palestinian issue serves as by Dan Kurtzer, former US ambassador to Israel (2001 - a categorical limitation on the establishment of formal 2005): “One important, but undervalued element in all past relations between Arab states and Israel.” peace efforts has been people - to - people engagement, that Clearly, the move toward normalization between Abu is, activities that bring ordinary pe ople together to Dhabi and Jerusalem severely undercuts the rationale overcome mutual distrust and to build understanding at underlying Pardo’s diagnosis. Indeed, altho ugh Emirati the grassroots level.” leaders have paid ostensible lip service to the “Palestinian Indeed, the friendly attitude shown towards Israel and cause,” the apoplectic rejection and incandescent rage with Israelis, together with the well - disposed manner in which which the initiative was greeted by the Palestinians clearly the 3,000 - strong resident Jewish community is tr eated in indicates that their “cause” has been relegated in Arab the UAE has been cited as the basis for the belief that, for priori ties and is no longer a focal rallying point for the the first time, Israel and an Arab country are on the cusp Arab world. of a warm peace — significantly different from the The “people - to - people” peace paradigm grudgingly cold peace that prevails with Jordan and Egypt, In the ongoing discourse on peace and its which resemble non - belligerency accords rather than a determinants, it has become common — and fashionable — harmonious peace. to claim that to create a sustainable peace, it is not However, as sensible and sober as these views appear, suffi cient to conclude a “political peace” — i.e. a compact experience has shown that the credence placed in the between governments/regimes. Peace, according to this durability of amiable people - to - people ties, is at times, school of thought, must be between the peoples of decidedly at odds with reality. erstwhile adversarial collectives. Iran b ecomes inimical This is a perspective that is not confined to the Israeli - In recent decades, there have been at least two major Arab c onflict and is propounded for the resolution of instances in which changes in governments have totally hostilities in other parts of the globe — such as Central and washed away any congenial impact of previously multi - East Asia. faceted people - to - people contacts with Israelis. These are Thus, in a piece entitled, “People - to - people contacts the cases of Iran a nd Turkey — which I have discussed in a seen central to peace,” Pakistani journalist S. Mudassir Ali recent column. But because of their centrality to the Shah reported on discu ssions in a 2018 conference in current discussion, I will present the facts once again — and Islamabad, under the banner of “Festival for Peace and hope readers will understand the rationale for my Regional Convergence,” where participants concluded: repetitiveness. “Increased people - to - people contacts among Central Asian From the early 1950s to the late 1970 s, until the fall of states are necessary to achieve lasting peace and prosperity the Shah (1979), Israel and Iran conducted very close in the region.” relations. Following the 1967 Six - Day War, a major This was a view echoed by a senior Pakistani delegate, portion of Israeli oil requirements were provided for by who stated: “People - to - people contacts are essential to Iran. Moreover, Iranian oil was shipped to European Page 7 September 12, 2020 Focus on Israel destinations via the joint Israeli - Iranian Eilat - Ashkelon the Jewish collective in the Holy Land, for considerably pipeline. There was brisk trade between the countries. longer. Israeli construction firms and engineers worked extensively However, as understandable as this desire is, it cannot throughout the country. Israel’s national air carrier, El Al, blind the country to the real mechanism of international operated frequent direct flights between T el Aviv and relations and the potentially fickle — or at least, Tehran. Iranian - Israeli military links and projects were ephemeral — nature of the relationships between nations. largely classified but were reportedly extensive — possibly This was aptly expressed by Henry Kissinger in his including missile development. well know book White House Years. In it he wrote: “Israel The scale and scope of the Israeli - Iranian insisted on a ‘binding peace.’ Only a coun try that had collaboration are dramatically illustrated by the words of never known peace could have attached so much Yaakov Shapiro, the Defense Ministry official in charge of importance to that phrase. For what is a binding peace coordinating the negotiations with Iran from 1975 to 1978: among sovereign nations when one of the attributes of “In Iran they treated us like kings. We did business with sovereignty is the right to change one’s mind?” them on a stunning scale. Without the ties with Iran, we He went on to elaborate: “For three cent uries France would not have had the money to develop weaponry that and Germany had fought wars in almost every generation; is today in the front line of the defense of the State of each one was ended by a formal “binding” peace treaty Israel.” that did nothing to prevent the next war. Nor did “open Turkey turns truculent frontiers” in 1914 prevent the outbreak of a world war that Turco - Israeli relations followed a somewhat similar shook Europe to i ts foundations.” pattern to those of Iranian - Israeli ones. Up until just over a Referring to the special lunacy that pervades the decade - and - a - h alf ago, and the ascendance of Recip Tayyip Middle East, he noted: “Most wars in history have been Erdoğan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), fought between countries that started out at peace; it was Israel and Turkey saw each other as having much in the special lunacy of the Middle East that its wars broke common — two non - Arab countries in an otherwise almost out between count ries that were technically already at exclusively Arab region, sharing a western looking war.” p erspective with regard to the future development of both The imperative of interest countries — with Ankara a far less problematic member of The impermanence of international alliances were NATO than it is today, and with a then - firm ambition to succinctly articulated by Lord Palmerston, then - British accede to the E.U. Foreign Secretary, in a March 1848 address to the House Indeed, so close and robust were the bilateral contacts of Commons: “…it is a na rrow policy to suppose that this between Ankar a and Jerusalem, that The New York Times country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or wrote in an August 1999 piece: “Over the last few years, perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies and Israel and Turkey have built a strategic partnership that has we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are perpetual altered the face of Middle East politics. Trade and tourism and eternal and those interests it is our duty t o follow.” are booming in both directions. Isra eli pilots practice This notion of interest as the dominant determinant of maneuvers in Turkish airspace, and Israeli technicians are nations’ behavior was, arguably, first articulated by modernizing Turkish combat jets. There are plans for Athenian historian and general, Thucydides’ (460 BCE – Israel to share its high - tech skills with Turkey, and for 400 BCE), in his treatise The History Of The Turkey to send some of its plentiful fresh water to [pre - Peloponnesian War (Ch V), in which h e stipulated that, desalinat ion era] Israel.” “identity of interests is the surest of bonds whether Relations began to deteriorate with the rise of the between states or individuals.” AKP and its increasingly firm grip on power in Turkey, Centuries later, essentially the same idea was but particularly following the 2008 - 9 Israel Defense articulated by British statesman, Lord Salisbury (1830 - Forces’ Operation Cast Lead in Gaza — and were further 1903), who stated that, “‘the only bond of union that exacerbated by the 2010 M avi Marmara incident. endures’ among nations ‘is the absence of all clashing Although Turkey’s relations with Israel have not interests.’ ” reached the same level of enmity as those of Iran, they are It was the renowned scholar Hans Morgenthau, who a far cry from those that prevailed in the 1990s — with in his Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Erdoğan even comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and the Peace, set out a modern formulation of the notion of events in Gaza to the Holocaust, in an address to the U.N. interest as the defini ng determinant of nations’ behavior. General Assembly. Novelty no virtue Israel’s preoccupation with peace & the Middle - East’s In it, he pointed out that basic patterns of “special lunacy” international behavior have remained immutable over In many ways, Israel is obsessed with the idea of time — and the passage of time will not change them: peace. This preoccupation is not difficult to understand. “Human nature, in which the laws of politics have the ir After all, the Jewish state has been u nder constant threat roots, has not changed since the classical philosophies of ever since its inception just over seven decades ago — and China, India, and Greece endeavored to discover these Focus o n Israel September 12, 2020 Page 8 laws. Hence, novelty is not necessarily a virtue in political doctrine, perhaps a sobering example is the chilling case of theory, nor is old age a defect.” the 1929 Hebron massacre, in which the Jewish residents He added, “…[T]he fact that a theory of pol itics was of the town were viciously attacked and brutally murdered developed hundreds or even thousands of years ago…does by Arabs, who had long been their friendly neighbors but not create a presumption that it must be outmoded and at the call of their leaders, mercilessly turned on them. obsolete…To dismiss such a theory because it had its Accordingly, Israeli policy - makers would do well to flowering in centuries past is to present not a rational heed the dour words of Tzipi Schissel , curator of the argument but a modernistic prejudice…” Hebron History museum: “…it’s impossible to understand Warning of the consequences of allowing wishful the reality we face today, without knowing the history of thinking to cloud judgement, he cautioned: “In order to Hebron.” improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws Which is precisely why — despite positive by which society lives. The operation of these laws being developments — Israel needs to “keep its powder dry.” impervious to our pre ferences, men will challenge them Mr. Sherman is the found er and executive director of the Israel only at the risk of failure.” Institute for Strategic Studies . Sobering precedent Visit suburbanorthodox.org for the current issue. For those who subscribe to the “people - to - people”

Hamas Lost the Last Round of Fighting with Israel — but That Only Makes the Next Round More Likely By Alex Fishman ynetnews.com September 2, 2020 Meanwhile, the coronavirus makes the situation all Sinwar demanded the electricity Israel supplies to the the more volatile. enclave be greatly increased ; the import of goods Israel This can be attributed to the current leader of Hamas categorized as contraband; more Palestinian workers in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, who's steadily losing his granted entry into Israel; and finally, he demanded an open grip on the Palestinian enclave his group took over in checkbook from Qatar instead of a monthly stipend. 2007. On Monday, Sinwar announced a restoration of calm If it were within his power, Sinwar would have gla dly along the Gaza border without receiving anything erased the last escalation from the collective Palestinian significant from Israel. This calm is set to expire within consciousness. two months - the time period Hamas gave to Israel before Not only did he fail to achieve any economical, it embarks on its next escalation. national or military achievement to present to the people Qatar, for its part, paid what was promised - handing of the Strip, the situation in Gaza actually deteriorated. over $30 million with no guarantees of future payments. During the t hree weeks Israel closed the land and If it was up to the Qatari emissary, this would have ocean passageways into the Strip, the number of been the last grant Gaza ever sees from Doha. unemployed there jumped by no less than 10%, as It seems that following Qatar's initial reluctance to thousands lost their jobs and their livelihoods. transfer the grant, Sinwar and al - Emadi held a meeting in Neither Sinwar nor his people can bury these numbers which the Hamas leader hurled accusations against Qatar, with mere words. This last round of violence against Israel which he claimed was trying to weaken him in order to was a colossal failure for him and his people. stre ngthen Khaled Mashal, his political adversary in the In October, Sinwar is set to run for the Hamas upcoming elections. presidency, in an election season that begins in November In the end, not only did Sinwar found himself back at and ends in March. square one, the IDF used the balloon attacks as an excuse Sinwar is stumbling to the starting line while Gaza is to strike no less than 104 Hamas - affiliated targets within under full lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and the enclave, thus delivering a blow to the organization's while the Strip is su ffering from the worst economic crisis infrastructure in the Strip. it has known since the Hamas leader came into power. Israel's Fire and Rescue Service and the military were During the latest escalation - which involved both prepared to deal with the blazes started by the continued incendiary balloon attacks on Israeli territories balloon attacks. adjacent the enclave - Sinwar tried to force Israel to the The IDF also used the opportunity to test a laser - negotiating table in an effort to improve the life in the based defense system whose objective is to shoot down Strip by October. drones and balloon clusters. The results appeared to have On that count he succeeded; Israel indeed negotiated been satisfactory, as the IDF's Planning Directorate is now with Hamas through Egypt, Qatar, and the UN. co ntemplating whether to further develop the system. During negotiations, Sinwar demanded conditions that Hamas is also seeing the finishing touches to Israel's were supposed to supply the residents of the Strip with a underground barrier, a countermeasure that aims to new lifeline. Only, he did not settle for the usual demand torpedo any further attem pts to tunnel into the country. for new electricity infrastructure in order to supply Gazans About a week ago, Gaza was hit by its own wave of with additional power. Page 9 September 12, 2020 Focus on Israel coronavirus, a new development that may have pushed schools and beaches are closed. Sinwar to end the current round of aggression. All exits from the Strip have been closed, except for Given that the Strip has a sum total of 120 ventilators, the goods transferred from Israel into the Strip on Tuesday it is safe to say Gaza is on the precipice of disaster. that were thoroughly disinfected by the Palestinians upon The Strip is under complete lockdown at the moment, their entrance into the enclave. no movement is permitted from district to district, and

The Iranian President’s Record of Suppression By Isaac Schorr nationalreview.com September 6, 2020 Even with plainly documented torture and mass well as abroad. During his origi nal campaign in 2013, arrests, the myth of Rouhani the moderate persists. Rouhani ran on a platform of freeing political prisoners Upon being elected president of the Islamic Republic and curbing the power of the morality police. A horrifying of Iran in 2013, Hassan Rouhani was heralded by Western new Amnesty International report on the Iranian leaders and the media as a harbinger of a new era. White government’s response to widespread protests in House press secretary Jay Carney said that his election November 2019 shows th at this was empty campaign “represented a call by the Iranian people for change.” The rhetoric. Washington Post called Rouhani a “moderate cleric” The report, appropriately titled “Trampling whose ascension delivered “an unmistakable rebuke” to Humanity,” was put together after Amnesty conducted Supreme Leader Ali Kh amenei. The New York Times interviews with 76 individuals, 60 of whom were subjected described Rouhani as “mild - mannered” and took his to “arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, and advocacy of “greater personal freedoms” at face value. other ill treatment.” During and in the aftermath of the Others saw Rouhani’s less ostentatiously hostile protests, thousands of Iranians were arrested by security presentation for what it was: a smokescreen. Though he forces — in the vast majority of cases, for merely showing was far less bombast ic and prone to saber - rattling than his up to the protests. In Bebahan, a small city of fewer than predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his track record 125,000 people, over 1,000 we re arrested. Children as should have made it obvious that Rouhani was not going young as ten years old were taken into custody. Moreover, to turn Iran into a less troublesome actor in the region or a the “heightened security atmosphere” was used as a bastion of human rights. He was the same man who had “pretext . . . to arbitrarily arrest and detain members of chaired the Supreme National Security Council — the ethnic minority groups” such as “Ahwazi Arabs, body responsible for setting Iranian nuclear policy and Azerbaijani Turk s, and Kurds, even when they had not believed to be responsible for the planning of terrorist taken part in the protests.” Iranian authorities have not attacks from Buenos Aires to Saudi Arabia — from 1989 released exact figures on how many were arrested, nor the until 2005. To Rouhani, “Israel is the great Zionist Satan” fate of those who were. Instead, officials have that “can never feel that it is in a safe place,” and “the tendentiously claimed that “some have been referred to beautiful cry of ‘Death to America’ unites” his country. In courts” while “a considerable number have been released.” a 2004 speech, Rouhani boasted that nuclear negotiations Punishments doled out to those tried for their roles in the he was holding with Britain, France, and Germany bou ght protests included being forced to wash corpses in time that allowed engineers to install “equipment in parts morgues, “researching the topic of the Islamic hijab and of the [nuclear conversion] facility in Isfahan.” “By writing by hand a 90 - page paper on it,” and being forcibly creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the conscripted into the paramilitary Basij force. work there,” he explained. Many of those arrested disappeared for weeks and Seeing through the Rouhani administration’s “charm even months. Family members who inquired as to their off ensive” in November 2013, Senator Marco Rubio wrote status were often “subjected to harassment [and] to advocate harsher sanctions, noting that, his “moderate” intimidation.” Some who vanished were taken to jail, label aside, Rouhani was the president of “a government others to unofficial secret detention facilities, wh ere even that is a notorious abuser of its people and the leading the minimal protections afforded to prisoners in regular global sponsor of terrorism.” Ru bio has been vindicated facilities are ignored and various forms of torture could be not only by Iran’s flagrant violations of the nuclear deal it carried out more easily. agreed to in 2015 but also by its continued support of Torture was used not only to force the “confessions” Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the of individuals’ unlawful behavior, “but also about their destabilizing activity of the Quds Force — the terrorist alleged associations with opposition groups outside Iran.” arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, previously Among the methods used by authorities to elicit such led by General Qasem Soleimani — throughout the confessions were beatings, prolonged stays in solitary region. confinement, stress positions and suspension, electric It should come as no surprise, then, that Rouhani has shocks, mock executions, and sexual violence and failed to live up to his reputation as a reformer at home as humiliation, including “forced nakedness, invasive body Focus o n Israel September 12, 2020 Page 10 searches intended to humiliate the victims, sustained sexual being involved in the protest s “after his interrogators verbal abuse, pepper spraying the genital area, and promised to provide him with medical treatment for the administering electric shocks to the testicles.” Allegations injuries he sustained under torture, which they later denied have also been made that interrogators raped some him.” Since then, Moradi and two other young men have detainees, but it is very difficult to get interviewees to talk been sentenced to death for arson, and their fate has been about such experiences because of the “psychological, rubber - stamped by Iran’s Supreme Court. Only one more social, legal, and institutional barriers to reporting rape and review process is left, and a decision is forthcoming. serious concerns around repri sal.” Jay Carney was right that Hassan Rouhani’s election in Trials held were rife with injustices, as defendants were 2013 reflected the will of the Iranian people for détente frequently denied legal counsel, a fair and public hearing, with the West and an expansion of their own rights and an independent and impartial tribunal, or the right to a freedoms. But the Obama administration, the Post, and meaningful appeal. They were also tried before both the Times were wrong to believe that Rouhani was well criminal courts and Rev olutionary Courts, the latter of suited to achieve those aims. Supreme Leader Khamenei which charged them with vague infractions such as effectively decides who is even able to run for office by “spreading propaganda against the system” and “gathering way of a Guardi an Council run by hardline clerics. If and colluding to commit crimes against national security.” Rouhani were truly an “unmistakable rebuke” to The story of Amirhossein Moradi paints a full, ugly Khamenei, he would never have become president. If pictu re of the Iranian regime’s response to protests under Rouhani was determined to act in the best interest of his Rouhani. Moradi was arrested in November and was held people, reading Amnesty International’s report would not in solitary confinement with only intermittent interrogation have been so heartbreaking. and torture interrupting it. He eventually “confessed” to Mr. Schorr is an ISI Fellow at National Review .

Palestinian Leaders Have Prevented Peace to Maintain the Flow of Aid Money By Hani al - Dahiri saudigazette.com.sa September 6, 2020 A crippling blow without firing a single bullet. Arabs to negotiate with the Israeli side and work to It is regrettable to see the plight of Palestinian establish comprehensive peace in the region away from bro thers whose politicians have traded their cause for gangs who eye only political gain. more than 60 years. These politicians saw to that the issue It is evident that it has become certain that other Arab remained alive and did not reach any settlement. They countries will catch up with the United Arab Emirates, and sabotaged negotiations and rejected all peace initiatives, this means that the last berry leaves will fall from the whether those presented by the Israeli side or those by private parts of the thieves of the cause who have gone other international parties. beyond history, and the curses of the Palestinia ns, who The Palestinian politicians did this at the expense of have traded in their pain since 1948, will follow them their cause and their people so as to gain from the forever. situation, which has remained as is till date. The There is an eternal saying attributed to the 16th US intransigent attitude that they pursued for decades was the President Abraham Lincoln, and I find it completely only guarantee for their survival with donations pouring in applicable to most of the Palestinian leaders who and aid funds boosting their treasuries and accounts in the manipulated their people and their cause. Lincoln said: European banks from all sides, especially from the “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some countries of the Arab and Islamic worlds. of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the Today, things have changed, and the peoples who people all the time.” used to sympathize with the Palestinian cause are fully The truth is that there is nothing in the entire aware of this game by people with vested interests. The Palestinian issue that enables it to continue and remain Palestinian issue means the death of the issue in the minds dependent on the current situation, because it is an issue of millions of people, because it is the inevitable result of that has reached old age and after old age the only thing s ix decades of lying, trickery and collection of money in remaining is death. And hence, either it is to be resolved the name of a crisis whose owners do not want it to be today or it would die as the Andalusian issue died as wise resolved. men realiz e that there is no difference between the two A few days ago, the courageous Emirati step to issues at all. normalize relations with Israel came and that delivered an As a human being, as a Muslim and as an Arab, I am explicit message to the Pale stinian political leaders: “The saddened by the situation of the Palestinian man who was time has come to confront between yourselves and those traded in by his political leaders. I wish him well, and hope who are deceived by you... the time for playing and that he would wake up fro m his coma and adopt what is jumping the ropes as well as trafficking with the concerns good that serves his interest and his future. of the Palestinian people is over.” However, his case in the property dispute with his As for serving the int erest of the Arab people in Gaza opponents is not sacred to me, especially since the and the West Bank, it requires the intervention of rational normalization of relations of some Arab countries with Page 11 September 12, 2020 Focus on Israel

Israel will allow me an d other Muslims to visit Al - Aqsa As for other matters, the people of Palestine are more Mosque and pray therein, which is the only thing that deserving of it, because in terms of logic, it is a first - degree concerns us in this case. “real estate dispute” a nd no one should be ashamed of acknowledging this fact .

Israel’s Virus Czar Was Making Headway. Then He Tangled With a Key Netanyahu Ally. By David M. Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner nytimes.com September 8, 2020 As he moved to slow the pandemic, Dr. Ronni G amzu the odds of stopping its march seem slim as the Jewish kept butting heads with ultra - Orthodox leaders. Then High Holy Days approach. Israel’s top virus fighter was suddenly undercut. Ordinarily, the New Year, Yom Kippur and Sukkot For a fleeting three days, it looked as if Israel had a re a festive and unifying time. Instead, there are fears that successfully rebooted its faulty fight against the by Sept. 18, when the holidays begin, Israel will be either coronavirus. overrun by the pandemic or under a full lockdown. And Then politics intervened. the deeply polarized country appears to be warring with In la te July, a veteran Tel Aviv hospital administrator, itself along religious, cultural and political lines that may Dr. Ronni Gamzu, was anointed the country’s virus czar sound familiar to many Americans. and swept in with self - assurance. Acknowledging previous Secular Israeli Jews accuse the ultra - Orthodox and government mistakes, he enlisted the military to take Arab citizens of spreading the virus in their overcrowded responsibility for contact tracing and pleaded with Israelis areas. The ultra - Orthodox point to the relative normalcy to take the threat seriously and wear their masks. of life in Tel Aviv and complain that they are being singled He also vowed to restore the public’s trust, demanding out. accountability from municipal officials while replacing the Joined by their right - wi ng allies, they ask why, if central government’s ceaselessly zigzagging dictates with crowds are so dangerous, liberal - leaning protesters are simple in structions that anyone, it seemed, should be able allowed to gather by the thousands to demand Mr. to understand and embrace. Netanyahu’s ouster. Last Thursday, Dr. Gamzu won cabinet approval for a And a growing chorus of frustrated Israelis across the traffic light - themed plan to impose strict lockdowns on political spectrum accuse Mr. Netanyahu of worki ng “red” cities with the worst outbreaks, while easing harder at holding onto power than on bringing infection restrictions in “gr een” ones where the virus was finding rates down. Indeed, in dumping Dr. Gamzu’s lockdown fewer victims. The goal was to avoid, or at least delay, plan, critics said Mr. Netanyahu had subverted his virus another economically strangling nationwide lockdown. czar’s authority to mollify his ultra - Orthodox coalition By Sunday, however, Dr. Gamzu was looking more partners. like a victim himself. “It shows that fighti ng the pandemic is not his first Ultra - Orthodox leaders who felt that t heir community priority,” said Orit Galili - Zucker, a onetime Netanyahu was being stigmatized revolted against the traffic light plan. strategist. This time, however, they did not bother to attack Dr. In effect, she said, the other crises that have weakened Gamzu, instead directing their ire at his most important Mr. Netanyahu’s standing — his ongoing trial on backer, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. corruption charges, and the anti - corruption And Mr. Netanyahu, under fierce public pressure from demons trations denouncing him — are inhibiting his one of his most vital constituencies, caved in on the willingness to let the professionals dictate how to combat targeted lockdown plan. the pandemic. Forget about the harshest new restrictions in red cities, “The political story of Israel is affecting its fight he announced Sunday night. Instead, he and Dr. Gamzu against the virus,” Ms. Galili - Zucker said. “It’s very sad.” grasped at a watered - down nighttime cu rfew, something Dr. Gamzu became Mr. Ne tanyahu’s virus czar after that Arab mayors had proposed to curtail big weddings but pioneering a program to protect the elderly from the virus that even Dr. Gamzu later conceded would have little at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. He addressed the Israeli effect in ultra - Orthodox communities. public energetically and emotionally in frequent television Mr. Netanyahu and Dr. Gamzu took turns at a appearances and Facebook videos, asserting that he w ould microphone on Monday to project unity. Mr. Neta nyahu now make the decisions. insisted that he had not knuckled under but merely done Others had refused the job because its powers were what the professionals had recommended. Dr. Gamzu undefined. But Dr. Gamzu, exuding confidence, tried to insisted that even if his professional recommendations had turn that to his advantage. been blocked, he was determined to soldier on. “I have a natural authority,” he said on Aug. 31, at the But the upshot for Israel is a bleak p rospect: The start of an interview that took thre e days to complete pandemic has mushroomed, with Israel’s number of new because of repeated urgent interruptions. “I was director - cases near the worst in the world on a per - capita basis. Yet general of the Ministry of Health, I know all the politicians, I know all the ministers. I know all the cabinet. Focus o n Israel September 12, 2020 Page 12

I know all the political issues. But I’m not a politician. I’m support for Bibi were say ing on social media: ‘Hey, what’s a p rofessional,” he added. this? They’re putting us in a ghetto.’” “I would say that I have 100 percent authority,” Dr. Dr. Gamzu’s authority seemed to erode in plain view Gamzu declared. last week. He laid out a three - pronged strategy: restoring public It took until just before midnight on Aug. 31 for him confidence; building the infrastructure needed — faster to get the government to close schools in red cities the and more widespread testing and many more next mor ning, the first day of school. But the mayor of epidemiolo gical investigators — to break the chain of Beitar Illit, an ultra - Orthodox West Bank settlement, contagion; and empowering local authorities. allowed his city’s schools to reopen anyway. On His signature initiative was the traffic light plan. It Wednesday, Dr. Gamzu drove there to personally enforce would give mayors the tools they needed to respond the closure. quickly to new outbreaks, but also give them the But it was Sunday’s reversal by Mr. Ne tanyahu that inducement they would need — easing restrictions — to prompted a chorus of calls by Dr. Gamzu’s supporters for win public cooperation. him to resign in protest, and left some Israelis despairing If it worked, he said, it could help delay another over what they called a leadership vacuum. nationwide lockdown until the army’s contact tracers are “I don’t know how anyone can be considered in ready for an expected resurgence of the virus in the fall. charge of the situation when they hav e no power at all,” The problem politicall y was that nearly all the red said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a political scientist at the cities turned out to be either predominantly Arab or ultra - Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. “Every decision is either Orthodox. And every action affecting the ultra - Orthodox whittled down or ignored. You can’t expect the public to sector elicited fierce pushback. listen to the government when the government looks like After a public outcry over the planned arrival of it doesn’t k now what the hell they’re doing.” 12,000 or more yeshiva stude nts from abroad, Dr. Gamzu Dr. Gamzu gamely tried to bounce back on Monday. said, he whittled the number down to 4,000. With a nationwide lockdown looking increasingly Dr. Gamzu also wrote to the Ukrainian president, inevitable, he stressed the advantages of starting one over Volodymyr Zelensky, and warned of potentially dire health the holidays: It would do less damage to the economy, consequences if tens of thousands of ultra - Orthodox were which slows down then anyway, and would prevent large allowed to make an an nual pilgrimage to Uman, the burial family meals and other opportunities for the virus to site of a revered 18th - century rabbi. spread. Ukraine closed its borders, and Dr. Gamzu was He insisted that he still had Mr. Netanyahu’s support accused of exceeding his pay grade — and of fanning anti - for his broader strategy. And he said he was no quitter, and Semitism, no less — by politicians including the coalition accepted that Mr. Netanyahu was oper ating under political whip for Mr. Netanya hu’s own Likud party. constraints. Then Dr. Gamzu offended a leading rabbi, Chaim “I can understand complexity,” Dr. Gamzu said. “I’m Kanievsky, over what he later said was a misunderstanding not the type of person who says, well, if I’m not getting about the testing of yeshiva students, for which he 100 percent consent to everything I bring to the table, then profusely apologized. it’s all or none.” The lockdown plan was “the last straw,” said Israel If ultra - Orthodox leaders are s avoring a victory over Coh en, a political commentator at an ultra - Orthodox radio Dr. Gamzu and his lockdowns, there is still the matter of station. the virus, coursing its way through their communities with “All these things together brought the situation almost little to stop it. to the breaking point between Netanyahu and the ultra - “Who did we defeat?” asked Mr. Cohen, the radio Orthodox public,” he said. “People who usually expressed commentator. “In the end, we all have to look after ourselves.”

Aliyah to Israel on the rise, despite COVID - 19 and bureaucracy bottlenecks By Israel Kasnett jns.org September 9, 2020 “We are doing the best we can to help process once in the Jewish state, whole families are required to everyone,” said Yael Katsman, vice president of sequester in a hotel for two weeks. Welcome to a liyah in public relations and communications at Nefesh 2020! B’Nefesh. According to Yael Katsman, vice president of public Israel is seeing a spike in aliyah (immigration to Israel) relations and communications at Nefesh B’Nefesh, a this year, with a higher number of people interested in nonprofit organization that promotes and facilitates aliyah moving to the J ewish state compared to previous years. to Israel, “aliyah is continuing, and we are seeing a massive But with COVID - 19 wreaking havoc across the world, it spike in interes t in the number of applications.” has become more difficult to get through the process and Page 13 September 12, 2020 Focus on Israel

Katsman noted that compared to previous years, this “the specific holdup comes from an important effort on August there was a more than 200 percent increase in Israel’s part to ensure those that are making aliyah are not applications. The top three states from which people seek known offenders in their countries of origin who are to make aliyah are New York, California and New Jersey. attempting to move to Israel.” “We ’ve had almost 1,000 people coming in this “The problem is also primari ly affecting individuals summer,” she told JNS. making aliyah from the U.S., where the apostille must “Israel’s gates are open to olim [new immigrants]. It’s come from Washington, and due to COVID - 19, this office just a question of getting the paperwork in order,” she is functioning on extremely limited capacity, leading to the added. delays in the aliyah process,” she said. And herein lies the problem. But she understands that some solution must still be The global coronavirus pandemic has wreake d havoc found if the coronavirus isn’t going anywhere anytime on bureaucratic systems since offices are shut and workers soon and people need a way to expedite the process. are staying home. This means that the process to make “Given the imperative to protect all its citizens, Israel aliyah, which requires no shortage of paperwork, cannot simply ease the apostille restriction; however, we signatures and stamps, has essentially slowed to a crawl. a re looking into creative solutions to ameliorate the Coupled with that 200 percen t increase in applications, backlog in the system due to COVID - 19,” said Cotler - and potential immigrants are looking at a major system Wunsh. “These include looking at bilateral efforts between backup. the U.S. and Israeli governments to streamline the apostille To make matters worse, Israel requires an apostille — a process, or allowing individual s to move to Israel on visas form of authentication issued to documents for use in and finish the aliyah process while already in the country.” countries that participate in the Hague Convention of Once the aliyah process is complete, olim must isolate 196 1 — for documents such as birth certificates, personal for two weeks after landing in Israel. What was once a day status documentation, adoption papers and criminal of immense joy and emotion has become a dreaded peri od background checks. that lacks the celebratory atmosphere that usually greets While there are companies that provide services new arrivals. helping individuals with getting documents authenticated But Cotler - Wunsh, a member of the Knesset with apostilles, a large par t of the problem is that they Immigration and Integration Committee, said she has must be issued by a federal office in America — offices not made efforts in this area as well in order to help olim working to full capacity. acclimate to their new reality. “It’s a process,” said Katsman. “There is various Indeed, on Sept. 1, the first day of school, she visited documentation that you need, which is part of the those being released from their two - week quarantine in standard process of making aliyah. The pro cessing is taking hotels to welcome them and to speak to the new students somewhat longer because of the pandemic.” joining classrooms around Israel for the first time. “We are doing the best we can to help process “The Jewish Agency, the IDF’s Home Front everyone,” she said. Command unit, and the hotel staff are playing such an Helping new immigrants acclimate to home and important role in supporting olim during this unique and school challenging” time, she said, adding that “it was important Knesset member Michal Cotler - Wunsh of the Blue that I speak to each of them about the support they need and White Party told JNS that with regard to apostilles, and my responsibility as a voice for olim in the Knesset.”

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